Modest in scale and muted in palette, Chardin's still lifes of kitchen utensils and foodstuffs presented a naturalistic alternative to the more decorative Rococo aesthetic that prevailed in the early to mid eighteenth century.

During the late 1720s and 1730s, Chardin painted a series of about thirty modest, small-scale still lifes of kitchen utensils and foodstuffs, in both horizontal and vertical formats. The compositions draw from a limited repertoire of everyday objects, and adduce no superfluous details or anecdotal references. They focus instead on the simple forms of the objects, the nature of their materials, and variable reflections of light. In the development of these works, Chardin's style gradually became more fluid and painterly, less minutely detailed than in his earlier still lifes.

Still Life with a Rib of Beef embodies perfectly the subtle, understated nature of these profoundly simple pictures. The muted, almost monochromatic palette is offset by the red flesh of the hanging meat and the white napkin draped over the table edge at left. Several of the objects represented in the painting--the copper cauldron and the earthenware jug, the long-handled skimmer--appear in other, similar compositions by the artist. 1

There are several versions known of Still Life with a Rib of Beef; indeed, many of Chardin's kitchen still lifes from the 1730s exist in multiple autograph versions (i.e., copies made by the artist himself). 2 Chardin was evidently a slow and painstaking craftsman, keen on achieving the precise harmonies of light and texture that distinguish his work. The artist's contemporaries observed that his paintings resulted from a long, evolutionary process of meditation, decision, and revision, and collectors often became impatient waiting for the completion of their paintings. Chardin's decision to repeat certain compositions--sometimes incorporating very minor adjustments or alterations--took advantage of the effort invested in attaining a successful formula, and also efficiently handled the growing demand for his works. 3

A version of the Oberlin composition in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux, signed and dated 1730 and thus among Chardin's earliest dated still lifes of kitchen utensils, is generally accepted as the primary version of this work. 4 The Oberlin painting is regarded as an autograph replica of the Bordeaux painting, in which the somewhat hesitant brushwork and distracting highlights of the earlier version have been better resolved, and the overall execution is much neater and tighter. 5 The Bordeaux Still Life with a Rib of Beef was probably originally paired with the Still Life with Ray and Basket of Onions, dated 1731, now in The North Carolina Museum of Art. The latter painting exists in as many as nine versions; none, however, have been specifically linked to the painting at Oberlin.

M. E. Wieseman

Biography
Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin was born in Paris on 2 November 1699, son of the master cabinetmaker Jean Chardin. He was the pupil of the history painters Pierre-Jacques Cazes (1676-1754) and Noël-Nicolas Coypel (1690-1734). Chardin was accepted into the Académie de Saint-Luc as a painter of still lifes in 1724, and became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et Sculpture in 1728. He was elected a council member of the latter in 1743 and served as treasurer from 1755 to 1775. In 1733, Chardin began painting genre scenes in addition to still lifes. His charming small canvases, depicting modest scenes of one or two figures, and the humble, everyday objects of middle-class life, were in the tradition of the Dutch cabinet pictures of the preceding century that enjoyed such popularity among French collectors at this time. Characterized by a simplicity and directness of vision, and a complete avoidance of sentimentality and affectation, Chardin's work represents a naturalistic tendency in French eighteenth-century painting that existed alongside the more fashionable and flamboyant Rococo. His technical mastery achieved great depth of tone through the use of a loaded brush and a subtle use of scumbled color. Failing eyesight forced Chardin to turn to the medium of pastels towards the end of his life. He died in his apartment at the Louvre, in Paris, on 6 December 1779. Among Chardin's pupils was Jean-Honoré Fragonard.

Tôkyô, The National Museum of Western Art, 1976. Masterpieces of World Art from American Museums. 11 September - 17 October (exhibition organized by the United States Museum Exchange Subcommittee of CULCON, the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan; also shown at the Kyôto National Museum). Cat. no. 37.

The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1975-76. Extended loan for exhibition with permanent collection. 9 April 1975 - 22 December 1976. No cat.

Technical Data
The canvas was lined and the original tacking margins removed prior to the painting's acquisition by the museum. In 1955 the canvas was relined onto a linen support using wax-resin adhesive, mounted on an ICA-type spring stretcher, and the back of the canvas was coated with an aluminum paint. The ground is moderately thick, and composed of two layers: the lower dark red and the upper light grey. The paint is applied as a thick paste, with thicker impasto touches in highlights and details, and little or no use of glazes. The painting is generally in good condition, with minor abrasions and retouching in the background area and the dark edge of the table in the foreground, and some flattening of the paint layer caused by relining.

2. In addition to the painting at Bordeaux noted below, there is a signed but not dated version of the Oberlin painting in the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, Calif. (oil on canvas, 40 x 31.5 cm), with the pendant of a Still Life with a Ray and Chicken; and an inferior version, signed "Jamin" and dated 1743, at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Washington, D.C. (oil on canvas, 40.5 x 32.5 cm). Several other versions or copies are listed by Pierre Rosenberg in Chardin 1699-1779 (exh. cat., Galeries Nationales d'Exposition du Grand Palais, Paris, 1979), pp. 160-61, under no. 35. See also idem, Tout l'oeuvre peint de Chardin (Paris, 1983), pp. 79-80, under no. 52.